#rivervale_lodge

"maybe" Tove says

"Yes, pleeeze" Snow smiles REAL big

"Okay, so you will have to ask nice and say thank you."

"Those are the rules."

"Okay" Snow says "May I have some pie thank you?"

Tove sighs "We're not having pie, tonight, snow"

"oh" The monkey sighs

"We don't have any right now. We have.. um.. more apples and bananas... and I think raisins?"

"may I have an apple yes please thank you?" Snow says

Tove looks at Dagmar and nods

"You may!" She snags one from the wire basket and offers it out. "You're welcome."

"yay..." she takes it 'Thanks thanks thanks" And scampers off

Another smile, and Dag gets back to helping with dinner.

"You, my dear girl, are a soft touch for furry creatures." Tove says but fondly. "Like your dad"

"Well, Snow is really very far away from home. And nobody expects monkeys to have manners."

"I do" she says "i'm fussy sometimes"

"Well, she can learn manners, but she doesn't have them yet."

"I woulda stolen pies, too."

"You are cuter than a monkey" she says "But okay, I see your point. I will try to be patient with her"

Blush. "Well. Snow's a cute monkey."

"And you're an adorable Dagmar.. oh, still mighty too. I mean, some might think THor is adorable, but I'm sure he prefers mighty thor to adorable thor"

"Absolutely."

"Dagmar the Adorable, or Dagmar the Cute are NOT to be used in any of my songs?" Making sure

"Grr." Good-natured growl.

A smile "Okay, noted."

"But I can be The Mighty as often as you'd like, sure."

"Very generous " the food is cooking, the pork chops look delicous

"I try. Jaymes could be the Mighty, too."

"Or Incredible, maybe."

A smile "I will tell you a secret. I have my own hidden names for each of you. You, Jaymes, everyone at the Lodge"

"Noooo. What's mine?"

"Thunder's Blessing" Tove says

And then, yes, a light hair tossle

"That sounds like a werewolf name." A grin. "Cool."

"Oh I suppose it might, the groo..garou..pardon, have their own skalds or close to it. " She says "Any one else's name you want to know? "

"Symon?"

"Shadow chime" She says

"Hm. Fits, sure."

"I thought about shadow bell, because he rings warning, but I thought he might something a bit more masculine"

"So chimes. Chimes seem more korean, too. I dunno why."

"...What's Dad?"

"Perfect" A wink "But his name in my sagas is Star Wing." WIstful "it... has to do with Ironhawk and how he helped wing me to this new home"

"You ever think of being like Vali, and getting published?"

"Oh no, no..for me the voice is very important. " She says "it's a cadence, a music to the spoken word. Oratory and tale telling with the voice is part of who I am. Take away that, and I am mediocre at best"

"You are not mediocre." Stubborn.

"Not when it comes to spoken story, no, thank you. I know my worth, and at the risk of sounding arrogant, were we to do a reading aloud, I could out do Sir Vali even with his own books. But word crafting like he does is his gift, and I recognize it. No shame there. The Silverhand books are really good"

"I've been reading them!"

"Did you like the part where she was nearly sacrificed, then broke the chains and..oh sorry, not sure how you far you've gotten though that's the first book so I figured you might have"

"Is that why Brekke's called Shackle-breaker? Is that story real?"

"Well, Vali borrows a lot from the Chieftain, but no, the Chieftain's legend, is , if anything, even greater. We shall never know the whole of it. For much is lost in the mist....but when a thousand voices cried out in slavery, she did hear. When she heard, she strode to their aid. Crack Crack, went the shackles! Snap and tear! Many a slaver tried to stop her, and a hill of bones lays somewhere in the dreaming, the skulls of those who would chain the innocent a monument to justice for tyrants of flesh. A falcon's cry, a storm's rage, a giant's justice... oh, the Chieftain went home, but the legend in the Dreaming cries hope to those in need, and doom to those who slave- The Steel Tempest might return, and that storm , slavers will find no shelter from"